Andrea Roberts

Imagine spending 70 hours a week advocating for hundreds of special needs children across the globe-- and NEVER meeting one of them. Imagine sitting at your computer for hundreds of days, communicating with hundreds of families, raising funds for hundreds of adoptions, and handling hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. Imagine writing thousands of emails and managing a massive website. Imagine spending your days putting out fires, calming frantic parents, praying, reassuring, and being a voice of hope for the unborn and the unwanted. Imagine doing all of this day in and day out, yet never getting to meet the families you are serving.  Imagine working this hard for four years without ever seeing the fruits of your labor with your own eyes.

Then imagine how it would feel to finally see, hold and enjoy one of the precious children your ministry had helped to rescue.

Today Andrea was finally able to hold one of her rescued children.  My son Aaron had the great privilege of becoming the first Reece's Rainbow child whom Andrea Roberts has ever met in person, apart from Meredith Cornish's children (Until just a few days ago, Meredith was on the Reece's Rainbow leadership team). Today I had the wonderful blessing of being one of the first Reece's Rainbow parents to meet Andrea Roberts and her son Reece. I was stunned to learn that she had met so few of her children. It was hard to believe that this dedicated woman, who has given so much of herself to so many, has almost never gotten to meet any of the hundreds of children she has helped to place in far-flung homes across the globe. It was an honor to meet her, and humbling to realize that without her tireless work, we would never have been able to call Aaron our son. 

The time went by too quickly.  We had only a few minutes to talk.  Both Reece and Aaron were bothered by the crowds and the confusion at the Richmond Buddy Walk, and so our time was short. At first, neither of the boys would cooperate with our picture-taking efforts. I never did get a good picture of Reece, as his smiles for me came at the end of our time together when I didn't have the camera handy.  Aaron finally agreed to be held and hugged as we were getting ready to leave. I was so glad he granted Andrea an opportunity to hold him and hug him. I consider that moment to be priceless.